Yesturday Monday January 26th we meet with one of the doctors at children's hospital to discuss Niklas's surgery and what it involves. We came away from the meeting overwhelmed with so much information. Basically we are scheduled february 19th at UCSF for an MRI ( 3 TESLA) and then we meet with the head eptoligist at UCSF the following week. With all of the tests we have done over the past two years the doctors are still unable to totally locate the origin of his seizures. As the doctor said yesturday " his case is a complex case". Certainly not music to my ears......on the bright side they think they are pretty sure of where the seizures are starting ( they have to be certain with surgery) and if the MRI on the 19th doesn't reveal any new information or helpful information then we can decide to go ahead with the grid placement. Although invasive and quite a surgical process, the grid will provide much more information that is needed for the surgeons to properly remove the problem area. We also found out yesturday that the MRI will hopefully help to rule out an illness that doctors mentioned could be a possibility-Rasmussens Encephalitis. We have heard nothing until now of this illness but his case is complex and doctors are trying to rule out anything they can to make the diagnosis more accurate. The doctors did not say that they think he has this illness but they also didn't rule it out until they get the results back from the MRI. The way they would tell is if the right side of his brain was not growing the same as the left. They would compare this scan with one done 10 months ago. With this information yesturday I felt like somebody punched me in the stomach. If it is Rasmussens Encephalitis then surgery is not an option and medication is not effective. I guess they use auto-immune medications to contain the illness. I seriously can't focus on RE yet because we don't have enough information and we don't know if he even has it. We have chosen to focus on the MRI on the 19th and I am praying that RE is not detected. We have gotten through many obstacles in the past two years with Niklas, with numerous tests to rule out awful illnesses and diseases. One in particular we dodged was Tuberis Sclerosis which we had to wait two weeks for the results. Fortunately it was negative-thank god. So I guess patience is in order right now which is not my strength.......I have to believe a solution is waiting for us after the 19th. Our doctors want to be certain to rule out anything that may stand in our way. I commend them on being cautious and very thorough with our case. soo as of TODAY that is where we stand......